Our Vision

Every child and young adult succeeds cradle to career, through shared purpose, alignment and accountability among community partners

This is the purpose of the Cradle to Career initiative in Rochester, Minnesota. Education is a powerful strategy to improve educational outcomes resulting in healthy individuals, families, and community who have economic stability with productive careers and contribute positively to a civic and equitable society.

Why is this so important for us? Our current outcomes are stagnant and too many of our children and students are not achieving their potential. The education achievement gap is a significant and persistent disparity in education scores, skills and levels of attainment. Population growth, changing demographics, workforce needs and innovation culture make it imperative that Rochester increases the rate at which it mobilizes an educated community.

The Cradle to Career Initiative will achieve better results. We will work differently than in the past and align our collective efforts from cradle to career. We will drive a cross-community, long term, sustainable approach around our shared purpose, goals, outcomes and metrics which will align our efforts around what works so that they are mutually reinforcing and will improve community results. We will consider every child, every student and every young adult as critical to the community’s success.

Our outcomes along the cradle to career continuum will include infant health and development; kindergarten readiness; early grade reading; middle school math proficiency; successful high school completion; transition to postsecondary training and workforce participation. Progress will be publicly available in an online Community Impact Report and regular community gatherings.

This is a proven model with proven results. We will join the StriveTogether network of over 70 cities through-out the United States, including 3 others in Southeast Minnesota, and be supported by a national convening organization, StriveTogether.

As a network of public, private, and independent organizations, Cradle to Career will facilitate, advance, and evolve a common agenda to ensure all children in our community have a clear path to economic prosperity through family, education, and community support and opportunities.